Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Banned books week

It's Banned Books Week. We're on board. Here's a map to remind you that our Freedom of Speech should not be taken for granted. The most recent local flap was in Burlingame, CA, two years ago, as detailed on the Banned Books Week site:

"Mark Mathabane's Kaffir Boy [a Green Apple staff favorite a few years ago] was banned from the Burlingame Intermediate School because of two graphic paragraphs describing men preparing to engage in anal sex with young boys. The book won the 1987 Christopher Award for Literature and was a finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Award for books representing 'concern for the poor and the powerless.'"

It should be noted that Green Apple sometimes get accused of censorship for choosing which of the 200,000+ books published each year we carry. Here's our new book buyer's explanation.

Oh, and we WILL have Sarah Palin's book on its release date of 11/17/09--our buyer's birthday, no less. I miss following her folksy tweets on Twitter. . . .

1 comment:

that's a great defense of what is, after all, a perfectly defensible position. librarians face the same kinds of objections over our own collection development policies. at the end of the day, you can't stock/buy everything and have to decide based on what your audience wants/needs. Great post.